Butter-substitutes or as they familiarily more familiarly called margarine products have been known for more than 100 years. Margarine itself was developed in the late 1860's by the French Chemist Me'ge. Me'ge was awarded U.S. Pat. No. 146,012 dated Dec. 30, 1873 for a margarine product formed from digested fatty beef tissues prepared by the action of pepsin in the presence of pig or beef stomachs. The oil for the margarine product prepared by Me'ge was the fat that was freed from the tissues and skimmed off at the surface. The oil was then cooled, grained and pressed to separate the soft portion which was mixed with salt and casein to give a product which upon chilling had about the consistency of a spreadable table fat, i.e., butter.
Due to the fact that butter-substitutes are normally less expensive than butter, considerable objections were raised to such products by the dairy industry. In fact, many states, notably Wisconsin and Minnesota, in response to dairy industry pressure promulgated stringent regulations on the sale of margarines. One such regulation made it illegal to sell margarines which were artificially colored. In order to maintain the margarine product market in these states many manufacturers resorted to packaging a ready to eat product to which the consumer added food coloring which was separately included with the uncolored margarine.
Most research in the field of margarines is more substantive than devising means to avoid prohibitive regulations. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 1,432,699 to Kinzer issued October 17, 1922 described the use of milk or edible coconut oil as suitable fat sources for margarine. Considerable development work has also surrounded the emulsification of margarine products. Bertram in U.S. Pat. No. 2,552,706 issued May 8, 1951 discusses the use of monoglycerides and diglycerides as well as the reaction product of a fatty acid, a polyhydric alcohol and a aliphatic polycarboxylic acid as suitable emulsifiers for margarines. Other emulsifiers which are used to stabilize the mixture of oil and water in margarine products are esters of polyglycerols of higher fatty acids such as are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,637,774 issued Jan. 25, 1972 to Babayan. Other emulsifiers which are described for use in butter-substitute products include non-ionic emulsifiers having a hydrophilic lipophilic balance of a specified ratio as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,519,436 issued July 7, 1970 to Bauer et al.
Low fat margarine products, that is, those having a fat content of less than 60% by weight of the product have been proposed to lessen the fat intake of individuals on restrictive diets. One such low calorie product is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,266,904 issued Aug. 16, 1966 to Duin et al. Recent development in margarine products include U.S. Pat. No. 3,338,720 issued Aug. 29, 1967 to Pichel for a butter-substitute which while emulsified remains a liquid over a wide temperature range.
The conventional preparation of margarine is a costly process involving a considerable degree of capital investment for the equipment used to prepare the margarine in stick or tub form. Additionally, it is often necessary in the warmer climates of this country to ship margarine under low temperature or refrigerated conditions. Moreover, margarine products also require refrigeration in the grocery store. The refrigeration is required to avoid bacterial growth which is promoted by the presence of protein and high water contents in conventional margarine products. Dietetic margarines which contain even higher amounts of water than normal margarine products are especially susceptible to bacterial growth for this reason.
It has now been found that margarine mixes may be prepared which are shelf stable under high temperature conditions. Moreover, the butter-substitute mixes of the present invention do not require the high capital investment needed to produce conventional margarine products. Other advantages of the present invention include the fact that salt-free products, reduced salt products, or low sodium salt products may be prepared according to the individual consumer's needs.
Throughout the specification and claims, percentages and ratios are by weight and temperatures are in degrees Celsius unless otherwise indicated.